Opportunity is Everywhere: How to Uncover Hidden Real Estate Deals

Part of being an entrepreneur/real estate investor is being able to see opportunities that others do not. Opportunities are everywhere.

But here’s the thing about opportunities: you may be looking right at one and not even see it.

Opportunities are something you have to train yourself to see.

As an example, think about the last time you wanted to purchase a car. You likely did a bit of research and determined a make and model that would fit your needs, style and budget. Then, as you were out and about, almost like magic you began to see that make and model all over the place. It suddenly seemed like they were everywhere.

Did that make and model just happen to become popular? No, they were out there before, and you were looking right at them; you just did not “see” them. Now that you have tuned your brain into that make and model, you “see” them everywhere.

The same scenario holds for opportunities in real estate. You have to tune your brain in to see them or they will remain hidden. Any experienced investor will tell you that once they tuned their brain into real estate, they saw opportunities that had been right in front of them all along.

Training your brain to see opportunities is not that difficult, but it does require that you exert some time and effort. To train your brain, you need to learn all you can about real estate. How? Well, you have taken one of the major steps in training your brain by coming to BiggerPockets and reading this blog.

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How to Find Hidden Opportunities

Seek Out Like-Minded Individuals

Find people who are successful entrepreneurs doing what you want to do and talk to them. Network with them, take them to lunch. Even offer to work for them for free.

Open Your Mind

Expose yourself to new ideas and ways of thinking.

Never read a financial newspaper or website before? Subscribe to and bookmark some to read daily. Download and listen to podcasts while driving around instead of the radio or music. Turn off the TV and watch business-related DVDs or videos on YouTube.

All of the above will give your brain the basis to begin thinking differently and start seeing those opportunities.

Be Patient

Training your brain does not happen overnight or even right away, as any amount of good training takes a bit of time.

But soon you will begin to realize something has changed. Something about you is different. You realize that you are thinking differently. You are using new terms and concepts. You are seeing those opportunities that were once hidden.

Now you are ready to go make the most of those newfound opportunities.

What are your suggestions for finding hidden opportunities?

Please share with your comments below!

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About Author

Kevin Perk is co-founder of Kevron Properties, LLC with his wife Terron and has been involved in real estate investing for 10 years. Kevin invests in and manages rental properties in Memphis, TN and is a past president and vice-president of the local REIA group, the Memphis Investors Group.

Thanks for the article, Kevin. Like you mentioned, this is the case not in real estate but in many things in every day life. Any entrepreneur needs to be open minded, a good listener, and be willing to take risks to some extent. Is there a particular example you are thinking of in your real estate career that inspired this post?

Nothing in particular. I am just amazed thinking back now at how I would pass right by properties and not think anything of them. I would perhaps “see” the property but would not see the opportunity. I would see and abandoned property and think nothing more. Today, I see them and investigate further. Today, I try to think much more creatively than I did in the past, trying to connect dots so to speak. All of that took training and time. I had to learn how to see.

Look everywhere. Yes look at foreclosures, look at motivated seller and also look for ways that others are not looking to get ahead of the crowd. I do not know what that is, but think about it and look for it. Set aside some time each day to think about your business and how to improve it and become more profitable.

All great tips. Too many people do not want to spend the time, or energy that it takes to get a deal. So they buy retail (MLS), and wonder why they cannot make money.

I like people that say “Find me a deal I can get a quick $50K and I will do it”. Like I would give up a deal like that. And odds are, even if you had a deal like that, they would have to analyze it for two months and it would be gone.

Newbies have all kinds of wild real estate ideas in their heads. Like you said many of them think the deals are just sitting out there waiting for them.

Hitting a home run in this business does not happen every day, but they do happen. To hit one though, you have to learn how to do it. You have to train and that is where we more experienced folks come in. To help them out.

Like you say, it is interesting to watch the bubble deflate after you discuss a little reality with some folks. Hopefully we more experienced folks can help them before they make a mistake and help them actually get started.